Damshung

Damxung County 当雄县 • འདམ་གཞུང་རྫོང་།
County
Namtso
Location of Damxung County (red) within Lhasa City (yellow) and the Tibet Autonomous Region
Coordinates: 30°31′04″N 90°45′46″E / 30.51778°N 90.76278°E / 30.51778; 90.76278Coordinates: 30°31′04″N 90°45′46″E / 30.51778°N 90.76278°E / 30.51778; 90.76278
Country	People's Republic of China
Autonomous region	Tibet Autonomous Region
Prefecture-level city	Lhasa
Seat	Damquka
Area
• Total	10,036 km2 (3,875 sq mi)
Population (1999)
• Total	38,473
Time zone	China Standard (UTC+8)
Website	www.dangxiong.gov.cn

Damxung County
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	当雄县
Traditional Chinese	當雄縣
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Dāngxióng Xiàn
Tibetan name
Tibetan	འདམ་གཞུང་རྫོང་།
Transcriptions Wylie 'dam gzhung rdzong Tibetan Pinyin Damxung Zong

Damxung is a county of Lhasa City, lying to the north of its main center of Chengguan, in the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Its administrative seat is Damquka. The terrain is rugged, including the western Nyenchen Tanglha Mountains, with their highest peak rising to 7,111 metres (23,330 ft). As of 2013 the population was 40,000, with most of the people engaged in animal husbandry.

Damxung means "select pasture" in the Tibetan language. The county has an area of 10,036 square kilometres (3,875 sq mi), with rugged topography. Damxung is long and narrow, measuring 185 kilometres (115 mi) from the northeast to southwest extremes, and at most 65 km across (40 mi). The county is tectonically active and was the epicenter of a 7.5M_w earthquake in the north in 1952 and a 6.4 M_w earthquake in the south in 2008. In November 2010 a moderate quake in Damxung at 5.2 on the Richter scale shook office windows in Lhasa. There were no casualties, but houses were damaged.

In the extreme northeast of the county, Namtso lake has an area of 1,920 square kilometres (740 sq mi), of which 45% lies in Damxung county. Namtso is one of the great lakes of the Tibetan plateau. The Nyenchen Tanglha (or Nyainqentanglha) mountains extend along the northwest of the county. Mount Nyenchen Tanglha is the highest peak in the region, at 7,111 metres (23,330 ft). The Nyainqêntanglha mountains define the watershed between northern and southern Tibet. A valley with elevation of about 4,200 metres (13,800 ft) runs parallel to the mountains to their southeast, sloping from northwest to southeast. 30% of the county's total area is in the prairie of this valley.

Damxung is cold and dry in the winter, cool and wet in summer, with very variable weather. The average annual temperature is 1.3 °C (34.3 °F), with only 62 frost-free days. The land is frozen from the start of November to the following March. Pasture has 90–120 days for growth. Average annual precipitation is 481 millimetres (18.9 in).

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